


DTR

by warboyziri



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, One Shot, Rambling, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warboyziri/pseuds/warboyziri
Summary: Annabeth has some things to clear with Piper
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Piper McLean
Kudos: 25





	DTR

She looked tired of their conversation even before they sat down with their coffees.

“You look like you should be asleep”, Piper said, “And it’s four in the evening. Not that I’ll judge if in fact you _should_ be asleep at four in the evening — god knows I don’t have a leg to stand on there.”

“I’m not tired. Not physically, at least.”

“Ah”, was all she said, and just looked at Annabeth squirm as she sipped her coffee. She was too good looking to squirm, but she looked so worried that it was hard for Piper to think about that.

Finally, she caved. “So”, Annabeth began, “I don't know if this is supposed to be a secret. I mean, I care about the girls and I don't know how this works but I hook up with you on a regular basis, even though we haven’t—what do you call it?”

“DTR”, Piper supplied.

“Right, even though we haven’t DTR-ed yet. So I'm just going to assume that I should be taking your side.”

“Aw, _babe_.”

“ _Anyway_ ”, Annabeth diverted, scowling at her grin, “I kind of sort of tried to set up an announcement — that could also be a discussion — coz, I mean, I'm not _that_ girl, you know. I don’t fall out with my friends when I’m dating someone or pick fights with everyone who disagrees with my views about them. I just don’t believe in sacrificing my friends for the person I’m currently having sex with”, she backtracked on her own, “ _not that you’re just someone I’m having sex with_ , really. I know I’ve implied this twice already but _no_.

“So, yeah, _hence_ , I thought I’d see how they respond to the idea of you and me being, like, a couple out in the open — which, I _know_ I should the discussed with you first, and I was going to, really, after I was done talking to them — which, again, does _not_ mean you’re less important than them. It's just that—they're my friends and they practically date everyone I date, you know, when it comes to social arrangements. It’s always been important to me that they at least approve of my partners. So I went to talk to them first.”

“And they don't approve”, Piper guessed.

Annabeth looked horrified. “No!” she cried, “no, of course not. They totally approve. They think you're amazing, you know that. I mean, they're my friends. We pretty much have the same taste in—company.”

Piper nodded. “So, they approve, but _they_ want to date me instead of you.”

When she laughed, the stress melted away from her a little bit, and Piper patted herself on the back in her head, while patting Annabeth's leg soothingly. “I wish”, she said, grinning at her, “Then I'd get the see how much you _really_ like me.”

 _So stressed_. “Then _what is it_?” Piper asked, firmly.

Her frown returned. “It's the girls. They don't think it's such a great idea.”

Piper thought about putting on a show of being taken aback but decided against it. “I'm honestly not surprised”, she said to Annabeth, smiling apologetically.

“Then maybe you can help me understand why they think so.”

“Well, it could be a flurry of things”, she said, “Maybe they know me just well enough and are trying to protect you from me, because, you know, I’m secretly a psychopath who sucks the soul out of everyone she is close to.”

They were leaning into each other, bending at the waist and neck a little more as they talked. Annabeth was stroking her arm. She looked like her head hurt. In a dead voice, she said, “Can you be serious please I'm very worried right now.”

Piper lifted her hand and ran a finger lightly on her cheek. “Do you care about what they think so much that you won't date me because they said it wasn't a great idea?”

The knee Annabeth had in her clutches was jerked towards her. “I'm dating you no matter what they say”, she said, eyes hard, “I just want to know, so if they decide to be dicks about it, I can gauge the situation by cause and consequence.”

Piper sighed, “Well, I may have an idea. But it's a long idea, and I might be wrong and it just might be because the girls don't think very highly of me.”

She said nothing for a while. “Is it a secret?” she asked.

“What do you think?”

“It feels like a girlfriend secret.”

Piper smiled. “It's the secret I'm giving you in exchange of the secret you gave me about the girls not wanting you to date me.”

She hesitated. “But—I said that isn't necessarily a secret.”

“Then neither is this.”

“That...seems very loophole-y.”

“Do you want to know what I think it is or not?”

Annabeth rearranged himself to have her legs looping over her, sat up straight and nodded. “Okay, go.”

Piper blew the air out of her cheeks dramatically. “Okay”, she said, “so let me ask you a question.”

“Is this going to be a booby-trapped philosophy lecture—”

“—I let you babble like a crazy person when _you_ were talking—”

“—sorry, sorry”, she kissed her hand and said again, “sorry, continue. What’s the question?”

“The question is...okay, let’s say two people in the group are dating. It doesn’t matter who or when, there are two people in the group, both unanimously liked, and they are dating. Then something happens and they break up. But instead of a regular thing — like misunderstandings or long distance or anything that couples usually mutually agree to part ways on, it’s something bad. One of the couple has done something bad to the other. Or maybe it turns out that this person is a complete asshole to whoever they date. The breakup is messy, and there’s no chance of reconciliation. What would you do about it?”

“About...what? I can’t try to get them back together. You said there was no chance of reconciliation.”

“No—I meant, what would you do, in general. Obviously, this would make things awkward in the group.”

“Yeah.”

“And the two exes would either just fuck off out of each other’s lives or try to just be complacent friends for the sake of the group.”

“Sounds sensible.”

“So what would you do? A friend of yours has hurt another friend, and there are no two sides of the story. Let’s say the two are tolerating each other to keep the group together. Would you take a side and support the friend who’s hurt?”

Annabeth _wanted_ to think about it — Piper could tell. But she didn’t have to. “No, I don’t think I would. They’re trying to keep the group together, so we would keep our support split between the two. All of us.”

“Even if this person is a fucking monster.”

“Whoever it is, wasn’t a monster to me.”

“So just because it didn’t happen to you, you’ll just ignore that it happened.”

“You just said they were trying to keep the group alive. And it wasn’t—like, let’s say it was cheating.”

“Okay, let’s.”

“If the person who was cheated _on_ says to me, ‘hey, I was hurt but my friends are more important, so I’m willing to get over it and forgive the cheater’, I’ll do the same thing and get over it.”

Piper knew she would say this. In fact, it was more thought out and articulate than she imagined. But it still felt like a pit was opening in her stomach. “Alright”, she said to her, “that makes sense.”

She had expected Annabeth to ask her what this had to do with the girls. But she went the other way. “You wouldn’t”, she said, “you’d take a side.”

“Look”, Piper said, “this sounds pathetic, but I’ve never had a group of friends I’ve had to worry about in such a scenario. I’ve never been split down the middle like this.”

“But if you were.”

“But if I was. I don’t think I’d be able to get over the way the cheater has treated my friend. Even if that person asks me to get over it, I’d take their side and _defend_ it. I always take sides. That’s my first instinct. And it’s selfish and childish, but that’s how I’m built. And so, my guess is that the girls don’t want us to date because, in the event of a dirty breakup, they think I will expect them to take my side.”

Annabeth was silent. Stoic. “Are they right?” she asked.

Piper shook her head. “I really don’t. They’re like you, not like me, and that’s a good thing, and I don’t expect anyone to do anything. This is my first time being a girlfriend — or it would be, since we haven’t DTR-ed — so everyone’s going in blind here. It would be unfair of me to just expect people to assume that I’d be a great girlfriend and that nothing could ever be my fault.”

“Alright”, she said, smiling quietly, “that makes sense.”

“Me accepting my inexperience or the girls not accepting us?”

This time, Annabeth leaned in and kissed her full on the mouth, still smiling. “You being a warrior, up in arms about every damn thing”, she said, “And you’re wrong. It’s not selfish. You just feel everyone’s injustice like someone’s hurt you instead, and that’s the inverse of selfish.”

“It’s still a problem.”

“Fuck, no”, she retorted, “I was scared there was some fight between you that I’d have to deal with. Now that I know that it’s _this_ , I literally don’t care what they think.”

“But it might not be.”

“I’m convinced it is”, she said, leaning back on the back of the couch, “how did you know, though? That this was the reason.”

Piper shrugged. “Because this has happened in your camp a lot while I was in the Aphrodite cabin. One of them was harassed, another one was hit, even. They just went on being reluctant friends. And I kind of made it clear where I stood on matters like these. They know that if I was in that group I would’ve turned it inside out. On both occasions.”

Annabeth didn’t reply, but her hands told Piper that she liked that. The pit in her stomach transfigured into a balloon and took flight.


End file.
